The 11th Hour: Story of My First Ten-Pound Rainbow Trout
I was twenty years old, working a fly shop job and fishing every waking moment possible. I was single, responsibility was a word that was not even in my dictionary, and my time was fully devoted to racking up as many new angling experiences as possible. I did not have much in the way of money, but the freedom to fish on as many occasions as possible made me the richest person in the world!
My 8:00pm departure to a lake that had been on my list for years would leave me arriving somewhere around 3 in the morning. As I rolled in, I was physically too tired to set up camp but mentally too excited to sleep. I knew there were rainbows over ten pounds swimming in the waters not 100 feet in front of where my vehicle was parked. I grabbed a beer from my six-pack that had dialed itself down to room temperature over the duration of the drive, and broke out my fly tying kit. Sleep was not in the books anytime soon.